Archive By Section - Local Sports

Oakdale resident Matt Hanko and his teammate Jeff Vasek earned top honors at the Gold Rush Adventure Race Summer Challenge (www.goldrushar.com) on June 21. The grueling race took place at New Melones Reservoir near Sonora. This event offers both a 12-hour and 6-hour race.

To quote one of my favorite authors, Henry David Thoreau, "Man is rich in comparison to what he can let alone." I was reminded of that quote this past week as I was camping up at Clarks Fork. For those who have no idea where Clarks Fork is, it's roughly 60 miles above Sonora, located in the Stanislaus National Forest. Unlike my last camping trip, there's no WiFi or cell phone service. So, for four straight days it might as well have been 1985. It felt great not having to worry about checking emails, missed phone calls, and ...

At the 26th annual Toyota/Save Mart 350, Carl Edwards didn't lead the most laps, but when he took over the top spot with 26 laps to go, he led the most important ones. It was Edwards' first ever win on a road course. It was the culmination of a lot of hard work and practice on road courses. Edwards qualified fourth and looked to be strong, but his car fell off early on in during the race, but his crew chief (Jimmy Fennig) was able to make the right car setup calls that would put Edwards back up ...

June 25, 2014|
By Mike Burghardt - Special To The Leader
|Local Sports

It's not even half over and already, 2014 has been a productive year for Oakdale's Austin Paddock. In May, Paddock graduated from Oakdale High School, and this past week, Paddock was crowned the 2014 Boys Cutting State Champion at the California High School Rodeo (CHSR) State Finals in Bishop, CA.

Oakdale's T.L. Davis and Fair Oaks was the home of the 2014 Oakdale Baseball Association (OBA) All-Star Tournament. With the city welcoming teams from other local area's featuring travel teams, the four-day event began on Thursday, June 5 and completed on Father's Day, June 15.

Oakdale MMA action returns to Chicken Ranch Casino in Jamestown, Saturday, July 12. Hoplite Fight Productions present "Unfinished Business" that features the main event of Pro Bantamweight battle between Brad McDonald of Oakdale MMA and Mike Ryan. Also on the card will be the co-main event featuring Pro Lightweight Luis Jauregui and Beau Hamilton. The night will also have Pro Featherweight fight between Sal Becerra and Josh LaGrange. Becerra, a product out of Oakdale MMA, is making his professional debut. Becerra finished his amateur career with a record of 5-0 and was crowned the Art of War Amateur champion in ...

Fishing during the summer months is definitely not for someone who doesn't like a little sunlight. This past week was extremely hot during the day causing even me to head back towards the dock. Not knowing how hot it was until I got behind the wheel of my truck I saw that it was 107 degrees. Once getting home I ended up sleeping the rest of the day while trying to regain some of the energy the sun had taken from me. Originally, I had planned to get off the water by noon but noon came and I decided ...

Oakdale High alum John Brunk made his final day as a member of the Chico State Track & Field team a memorable one at the NCAA DII Track and Field National Championships, earning a spot on the All-America podium in the decathlon. Competing in 10 events over two days, Brunk posted personal bests in the 110-meter hurdles, the 1,500-meter run (with a winning time of 4:23.90), and matched his personal record in the pole vault, clearing 15-01. In the process, Brunk snagged his second decathlon All-America honor with 7,351 points, good for sixth place overall out of ...

Summer vacation has officially started for my family, this week we've been spending the first part of it camping at Lake Pardee. Actually, I'm typing this report from the picnic table of my campsite. Currently, we're the only family camping mid-week, making it even more enjoyable. The fishing has been good; the early morning kokanee bite is great, I've even been able to catch a few during the middle of the day. The first night was rough though, as expected, my 2-year-old wasn't on the same sleeping schedule as the rest of us. Night number ...

Shelby Stansbury, a 16-year-old junior at Oakdale Charter School, has been lighting up the arenas for the California High School Rodeo Association (CHSRA). Stansbury, the daughter of Skip and Taffy Stansbury, has been riding since the age of four.

Last week while reading the fishing report from Lake Pardee, I read that some of the regulars believed that if the cows were lying down in the morning, fishing was going to be tough, if they were standing, the bite was supposed to be good. So, on my way up to the lake I looked for the first cow nearest the lake and to my joy it was standing. I'm not usually one to buy into superstitions but this one I had to test for myself as it was different than any other that I've heard of before ...

If you would have told me 10 years ago that someday I'd be selling my bass boat and buying a multi species boat I would have laughed at you. I did just that though and I'm not looking back. For years now while writing this report, I've often felt a little out of the touch with some of the reports being that I primarily fished for bass. If I caught a trout, catfish, striped bass, or anything else, it was while I was fishing for largemouth bass. That's all changed in the past few years and ...

Articles by Section - Local Sports

Competing in the United States Polo Association (USPA) Interscholastic Girls (seventh grade – 12th grade) division, Oakdale took third place overall at the Western Regional Tournament at Central Coast Polo Club in Los Osos, California. The team was in action Feb. 13 through 15 and played against Maui Makaha, Maui, Hawaii and Horse Park, Menlo Park, California. They placed third overall.

The 31st annual Carquest NHRA Nationals at Wild Horse Motor Sports Park in Phoenix, Arizona, featured some strong performances throughout qualifying, thanks to some very good weather conditions. Just enough sun to put some heat in the track with some cloud cover to keep the temperatures in the optimal range for tuning performances in all the professional categories. The great weather also brought out huge crowds for the two qualifying days.

The sun spent most of the weekend shining down on the 55th annual Circle K Winternationals in Pomona as the NHRA Mello Yello kicked off the 2015 season with a near capacity crowd at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

The 2015 NHRA Season opened with the 55th annual Circle K/NHRA Winter Nationals in Pomona at the LA County Fairplex. Throughout qualifying, 70 degree plus temperatures and overcast skies prevailed, producing some of the best conditions seen in a while for some great on track performances. But, just as the final rounds of professional qualifying arrived, the overcast skies turned into rain, cancelling the fourth and final qualifying session. Thus, the final elimination fields would be set after just three highly competitive sessions of qualifying.

The first fishing advice I ever received was to be patient. I'm not sure if I even understood the word back then, I just knew that I was expected to wait for the fish to come to me. This time of year, I'm constantly reminded of that advice as the bites are usually harder to come by. There are a couple of things that I do to keep motivated when the fishing gets tough. I always bring a warm thermos of coffee. Just about the time frustration starts to set in, I pull out my thermos and warm ...

A lot of people that I've been talking to are concerned about the lack of rain we've had so far this season. Through writing this column, I've learned that there's a definite pattern in the weather from year to year. It seems like every fourth year we have a similar dry spell and then all of a sudden, we are hit by a series of big storms that just about make up for all the lack of rain. Seven years ago the Delta along with other surrounding waterways had to be shut down as they were ...

Wyatt Hansen is a sophomore at Oakdale Charter High School. He is a normal teenager who attends classes, has homework and daily chores. What separates Hansen from other high school kids his age is that he is already an established rodeo star. Hansen competes in calf roping and team roping.